There must have been 300 rifles and I asked so many questions I cannot remember 20% of the answers sorry.
I'll be sure to ask what the calibers are in the morning and get back to you in due course.
A name that kept cropping up is of Ron Bester. Bester is considered to be the highest authority on small arms of the ABW in the country. A few calls and his publishers email was found. I sent an email which bounced back so I called the white pages who said they have never heard of such a company (from the mail address) so they must have gone bust. Then I called someone else who gave the name of the town he lives in, and white pages had his number. I phoned him up and some voice said "sentrale". That caught me off guard for a moment before I realized it was still an exchange where you spoke to the guy at the post office who then manually connects your call to who you want to speak. So I just asked the operator, who spoke Afrikaans, I wanted to speak to Ron without giving his last name. No need to when the population is as sparse as in the really rural areas. He said hang on and I could hear Ron's ring tone, a few longs and some shorts inbetween. Next thing I was speaking to Ron.
Ron is the author of a book: Small arms of the Anglo Boer War by Kraal Publishers. The book is out of print but Ron still has "a limited number of copies" that I'm sure he will be willing to sign if anyone wants a copy. The book retails for R 575-00, and postage (including insurance) is an additional R 230-00. Now here's the deal: you contact him with your order and mailing address. He mails it to you and if you receive it in good order you stick the relevant amount of $ bills in an envelope and mail it back to him. He says he does some overseas travel and can use foreign currency.
If anyone wants a copy of his book please PM me for his email address that I will gladly supply.
I have never seen the book but from what I understand this is the book all local researchers use as a reference.
Last edited by PieterKriel; 02/28/12. Reason: all has 2 l's
